Meet Jacquie Denny, founder of Everything But The House (EBTH), the world’s largest online estate sale marketplace. EBTH lets you bid on everything from vintage decor and antique jewelry to rare art finds and signed sports memorabilia. Bidding starts at $1.
What inspired you to start EBTH?
A family estate liquidation left my family not feeling valued. The auctioneer was licensed and had a great “call,” but the auction had limited time and limited audience; therefore bidders in attendance that day were going to make more money reselling the items than the family liquidating them.
Further, things were sold in box lots, with little research done on who the audience might be. The auctioneer did nothing purposely wrong, there just was so much more that could have been done. My thought was how great it would be if someone took the responsibility to not just sell estate items but to also market them. It sounded simple, and that is where my 26-year journey began in the industry (I founded my own tag sale company called Sorting It Out in the early 90s).
The journey has been a series of discovering “what is” and “what can be” in the auction experience for the family in transition. I have found that my original idea for the best “fix” to the estate sale industry continues to transform as we continue to grow and improve the auction process to be the best resolution for everyone we serve.
What’s a typical day at EBTH?
There are no typical days at EBTH, but one constant in every day at EBTH is our focus on serving each client, whether buyer or seller, to the best of our ability. Every client and sale is unique. It is a puzzle of discovery, photography, cataloging, advertising and logistics that makes each sale successful. We start each day focusing on the clients that we need to serve that day and then repeat every 24 hours.
What are you reading?
I love to read books related to the growth of a company, so I am currently reading, Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips by Dave Knox. Previously, I read The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future by Steve Case. Being an entrepreneur is the closest I could come to being a professional student–it is a lifelong passion for learning and changing. What’s next for you and your company? We are Change Wizards. We want to continually improve our service offerings and our processes. We always want to grow into more cities, serve more families, and become a better environment for our team. Logistics is our big focus now!
Jacquie Denny, Founder and Chief Development Officer of EBTH, uses her earlier career experiences in market strategy, penetration and new market development to increase sales and drive revenue in this premier online estate and personal property sale company.
Follow Jacquie on Twitter @jacquiedenny
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